4. .._.._.._.._„ — ._.._.„_.._.._.. — ._..___^, 

i 


Rome's  Law 
Or  Ours™ 
Which? 


Ue..\A/ 


By  THOS.  E.  WATSON 


Published  and  Copyrighted  by 

THE  TOM  WATSON  BOOK  CO.,  Inc. 

Thomson,  Georgia 

1928 


ROME'S  LAW,  OR 
OURS-WHICH? 


A  RE  you  willing  to  spend  a  few  minutes 
''^*- sizing  up  a  terribly  dangerous  situation, 
and.  getting  your  bearings,  as  an  American 
citiccn? 

There  never  was  an  oath  required  of  a 
Christian  minister,  until  hundreds  of  years 
after  Christ.  When  the  bishops  of  Rome  be- 
gan to  usurp  the  powers  of  the  pagan  Pontifex 
maximus — in  the  absence  of  the  Emperors 
who  had  removed  the  capitol  to  Constanti- 
nople— the  priests  who  supported  the  Bishop's 
usurpations  were  put  under  oath  of  allegiance 
to  him.  just  as  feudal  vassals  swore  allegiance 
to   feudal  lords. 

Professor  Pulliam  of  Mercer  University 
was  kind  enough  to  translate  for  me  the 
original  oath  prescribed  for  all  priests  at  the 
Council  of  Trent  (1545-63)  and  I  ask  you  to 
carefully  read  it,  in  order  that  you  may  com- 
l)rehend  how  absolutely  and  unreservedly  all 
priests  are  the  subjects  of  the  Italian  pope,  and 
how  the  oath  places  Catholic  laymen  on  the 
footing  of  subjects  to  the  priest. 

Thus,  through  obedience  to  the  priests,  they 
themselves  become  subjects  of  a  foreign  po- 
tentate : 


PART  OF  "THE  SACREDOTAL  OATH." 

(Translation  from  "The  Holy  Council  of  Trent.") 

I  declare,  in  like  manner,  that  in  the  Mass  a 
true,  individual  and  propitiatory  sacrifice  is  of- 
fered for  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  that  in  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Communion  there  is  truly, 
really  and  substantially  the  body  and  the  blood, 
together  with  the  life  and  divinity  of  our  Lord, 
Jesus  Christ;  and  that  there  is  a  conversion  of  all 
of  the  substance  of  the  bread  into  the  body,  and 
of  all  the  substance  of  the  wine  into  the  blood, 
which  conversion  the  Catholic  church  calls  Tran- 
substantiation.  I  confess,  likewise,  that  under 
another  form  onlj'  I  have  received  Christ,  the 
whole  and  complete  and  the  true  Sacrament. 

I  firmly  maintain  that  there  is  a  Purgatpry,  and 
tliat  souls  detained  there  are  aided  by  tlie  prayers 
of  the  faithful;  and,  likewise  that  the  Saints,  rul- 
ing together  with  Christ,  should  be  worshipped 
and  invoked,  and  that  they  offer  prayers  to  God 
for  us,  and  that  their  Remains  are  to  be  wor- 
shipped. I  most  firmly  declare  that  Images  of 
Christ,  as  always  of  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God, 
and  of  the  other  Saints  also,  should  be  had  and 
kept,  and  that  adoration  should  be  given  them, 
and  veneration  bestowed  upQU  them.  Likewise,  I 
affirm  that  the  right  of  indulgences  was  left  by 
Christ  in  the  Church,  and  that  the  use  of  them 
has  been  most  salutary  to  the  Christian  people. 

I  recognize  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Roman  Church  as  the  mother  and  mistress  of  all 
'the  Churches;  and  I  solemnly  promise  and  swear 
true  obedience  to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  who  is  the 
successor  of  the  Blessed  Peter,  the  chief  of  the 
Apostles,  and  is  the  Vicegerent  of  Jesus_  Christ; 
likewise  I  accept  and  acknowledge  unhesitatingly 
all  the  other  things  recorded,  decreed,  and  de- 
clared by  the  sacred  Canons,  and  by  the  Ecu- 
menical Councils;  and  at  the  same  timel  in  like 
manner  condemn,  reject  and  anathematize  what- 
ever heresies  are  condemned,  rejected  and  ana- 
thematized by  the  Church. 

Tliis  true  Catholic  faith  out  of  which  no  one 
can  be  saved,  which  in  the  present  vow  I  profess 

589151 


and  truthfully  uphold.  I,  in  like  manner,  promise 
and  vow  and  swear  to  keep  and  own  (God  help- 
ing) entire  and  inviolate  up  to  the  last  breath  of 
life;  and  that  I  shall  see  to  it,  so  far  as  it  shall 
be  in  my  power,  that  it  is  held,  taught  and  pro- 
claimed by  my  subjects,  or  l>y  those  whose  care 
shall  appertain  to  me  in  my  official  service.  So 
help  me  God,  and  this  holy  Evangel  of  God. 

(Sacred  Council  of  Trent.  Padua,  1760,  800., 
p.  312.  By  permission  and  prerogative  of  the 
Superiors.) 

On  page  119,  Book  II.  of  Bishop  Burnett's 
"History  of  the  Reformation  of  the  Church 
of  England,"  you  will  find  this  statement: 

On  the  11th  of  May,  1532,  King  Henry 
VIII.  "sent  for  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  told  him  that  he  found  on 
inquiry  that  all  the '(Roman)  prelates  whom 
he  had  looked  on  as  wholly  his  subjects,  were 
but  half-subjects:  for  at  their  consecration 
they  sw^ore  an  oath  quite  contrary  to  the  oath 
they  swore  to  the  Crown;  so  that  it  seemed 
they  were  the  Pope's  subjects,  rather  than 
his." 

The  King  wanted  the  Speaker  to  bring  the 
matter  to  the  attention  of  Parliament,  in  order 
that  some  action  should  be  taken  against  this 
divided  allegiance. 

Bishop  Burnett  proceeds — 

"Upon  which  the  two  oaths  that  the  clergy 
swore  to  the  King  and  the  Pope  were  read  in 
the  House  of  Commons." 

The  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  King  was  as 
follows : 

I,  A.  B.  do  utterly  testify  and  declare  in  my 
Conscience,  that  the  King's  Highness  is  the  only 
Supreme  Governor  of  this  Realm,  and  of  all 
other    his    Highness's    Dominions    and    Countries, 

Southern  Pamphletii 

4 
Lare  Book  Collection 


as  well  in  all  spiritual  and  Ecclesiastical  Thinpfs 
and  Causes  as  Temporal ;  and  that  no  Foreign 
Prince,  Person,  Prelate,  State,  or  Potentate  hath 
or  ouglit  to  have  any  Jurisdiction,  Power,  Su- 
]>criority,  preeminence  of  Authority  Ecclesiastical 
or  Si>iritual  within  this  Realm;  And  therefore  I  do' 
utterly  renounce  and  forsake  all  Foreign  Juris- 
diction, Powers,  S'uperiorities,  and  Authorities, 
and  do  promise  that  from  henceforth  I  shall  hear 
h'aith  and  true  Allegiance  to  the  King's  Highness, 
his  Heirs  and  "Lawful  Successors;  and  to  my  Power 
shall  Assist  and  Defend  all  Jurisdictions,  Privi- 
leges, Preeminences  and  Authorities,  Granted  or 
helongiug  to  the  King's  Highness,  his  Heirs  and 
Successors,  or  united  and  annexed  to  the  Imperial 
Crown  of  this  Realm.  So  help  me  God,  and  hy 
tlie  Contents  of  this  Book. 

The  oath  which  all  Catholic  prelates  took, 
for  flic  Pope,  contains  the  most  sweeping  sub- 
mission to  his  authority,  the  obligation  to  main- 
tain him  in  all  his  claims  of  power,  and  the 
vow  to  ol)ey  all  Rules,  Decrees,  Ordinances, 
Sentences,  Dispositions,  Reservations  and  Pro- 
visions issuing  from  Rome.  Then  follow 
these  words : 

"Heretics,  schismatics,  and  Rebels  to  our 
Holy  Father  and  his  Successors,  I  shall  resist 
and  persecute" 

In  a  marginal  note.  Bishop  Burnett  states 
that  the  actual  words  in  the  Latin  oath  are, 
"Prosequar  in  pugnaho." 

(The  word  pugnabo  implies  physical  force, 
violence,  battle.  Our  words  pugnacious,  pug- 
nacity, and  piinitiz'c  belong  to  the  same  class.) 

In  consequence  of  King  Henry's  discovery 
of  the  divided  allegiance  of  Roman  Catholics, 
he   caused    Parliament   to    enact   severe    laws. 


which  required  Englishmen  to  swear  that  the 
King  of  England  was  Supreme  within  the 
realm. 

Catholics  had  to  make  oath  that  the\-  owed 
no  allegiance,  temporal  or  spiritual,  to  any 
foreign  prince,  power  or  potentate. 

(The  State  of  New  York  copied  that  law, 
and  used  to  enforce  it  upon  Roman  Catholic 
immigrants,  before  our  War  Between  the 
States.) 

Many  English  Catholics  refused  to  take  the 
oath  of  "Supremacy" — as  it  was  called — and 
they  were  put  to  death  as  traitors. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  the  Chancellor,  who  had 
barbarously  burnt  fellow-Christians  for  de- 
nying that  priests  could  create  God  out  of  wine 
and  bread,  was  himself  beheaded  because  he 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  undivided  allegiance 
to  King  Henry. 

To  meet  another  clause  of  the  treasonous 
oath  of  the  priests,  it  was  made  a  capital  of- 
fense to  introduce  into  England  any  papal 
order,  decree,  excommunication,  or  other  pro- 
vision, without  the  consent  of  the  King. 

Had  Gibbons,  O'Connell,  and  Farley  lived 
in  Great  Britain,  a  few  generations  ago,  they 
would  ha^'e  been  put  to  death,  for  treason,  on 
account  of  the  infamous  A'^^  teinere  decree 
which  they  brought  into  this  countr}'  in  1908. 

Had  they  gone  to  Rome,  taken  that  treason- 
ous oath  of  blind  obedience  to  the  Italian  pope, 

6 


;ind  returned  to  England.  Queen  Elizabeth, 
or  Kini,''  Edward  VI.  would  have  had  tlieir 
heads  cut  off. 

Lord  Baltimore  sneaked  out  of  England 
under  King  James  I.,  rather  than  take  the 
oath  of  undivided  allegiance,  and  the  Catholics 
whom  he  settled  in  Maryland  did  the  same 
thing. 

They  were  not  willing  to  swear,  that  the 
Pope  had  no  right  to  overthrow  Protestant 
governments,  subvert  Protestant  laws,  and 
persecute  to  death  such  heretics  as  you  and  I. 

Right  now.  if  a  real  oath  of  allegiance  were 
offered  to  either  of  these  three  Irish  Cardinals, 
or  to  Archbishop  Blenk.  or  to  Bishop  Keiley, 
he  would  refuse  to  take  it. 

He  couldn't  take  it,  without  perjuring  him- 
self, although  he  might  do  so  with  "a  mental 
reservation." 

The  Pope's  is  the  only  church  that  is  foreign ; 
the  only  church  whose  laws  antagonize  de- 
mocracy aiid  republican  institutions ;  the  only 
church  that  sends  and  receives  ambassadors ; 
the  only  church  that  has  a  secret  cipher,  a 
secret  service  and  a  world-wide  network  of 
secret  societies ;  the  only  church  whose  theo- 
logy teaches  murder,  and  whose  literature  is 
so  obscene  that  she  savagely  prosecutes  ex- 
•  monas,  ex-nuns,  ex-priests,  and  Protestants 
who  expose  it. 

The  Pope's  is  the  only  church  which  or- 
ganizes for  political  purposes,  and  calls  upon 


her  meml)ers  to  so  use  their  votes  as  to  change 
our  laws  into  conformity  with  hers. 

The  Pope's  law  condemns  freedom  of  the 
press  and  of  speech ;  and  Catholics  now  are 
hending  every  energy  to  put  the  Pope's  law 
in  place  of  ours. 

Liberty  of  worship  would  go  next,  and  then 
the  schools  would  fall  completely  into  the 
power  of  Rome. 

In  essentials,  we  would  be  the  subjects  of 
a  foreigner,  just  as  we  were  in  the  days  of 
King  Geoi-ge,  only  the  oppression  would  be  in- 
finitely worse. 

If  these  Irish  Cardinals  could  Mcxicauicc 
us.  they  would. 

If  we  don't  wake  up  and  get  busy,  thcv 
ivW. 

For  400  years,  the  Roman  prelates  had  full 
control  of  Mexico,  one  of  the  richest  lands 
on  the  globe;  and  see  what  they  did  for  it! 

They  enslaved  the  people,  robbed  them  of 
their  produce,  kept  them  in  ignorance,  filled- 
them  with  degrading  superstitions,  vilely  mis- 
used their  women;  and  built  gorgeous  Cathed- 
rals and  palaces  for  themselves,  leaving  the 
miserable  peon  to  live  in  a  wretched  hut,  hard- 
ly fit  for  a  decent  man's  dog. 

That's  what  they  did  in  Cuba  and  South 
America;  what  they  did  in  the  Philippines; 
what  they  did  in  Italy  itself,  until  Garibaldi, 
Cavour  and  Victor  Emmanuel  broke  the  papal 
yoke. 

Portugal  was  sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  by 
the    same    detestable    svstem,    and    onlv    sue- 


ceeded   in  throwing  it  off   six   or  eight  years 


But  our  daily  papers  and  many  Protestant 
preachers  are  mysteriously  convinced,  that 
the  Roman  system  is  not  the  same  that  it  was 
in  Italy,  in  1848:  in  Portugal,  in  1908;  in  the 
Philippines,  in  1898;  in  Mexico,  in  1895. 

In  iNIexico,  the  Catholic  priests  were  burning 
heretics  in  1895 ;  in  Rome,  they  were  starving 
and  assassinating  them,  in  1848;  in  Portugal, 
the  nuns  and  their  l)ahies  left  the  convents 
together,  in  1908 ;  and  in  the  Philippines,  the 
Taft  Commission  uncovered  a  situation  as 
hideous  as  the  darkest  days  of  medievalism. 

But  if  can't  conic  to  us,  they  say! 

CAN'T  IT? 

In  the  very  Convention  that  heard  so  much 
loyalty  to  American  institutions  the  professions 
were  belied  by  the  speakers  themselves. 

Thcx  demand  control  of  our  national  policy 
toward  Mexico. 

They  crave  another  400  years  of  peonage, 
of  unrestricted  vice,  of  unrelieved  ignorance, 
and  of  profligate  living  for  immoral  priests. 

They  demand  tJiat  the  Pope's  lazv  of  Di- 
vorce drive  ours  off  the  Statute  book. 

They  crave  complete  ownership  of  the  wife 
and  child,  in  order  that  American  mothers  may 
l)e  abject  slaves,  as  European  women  used  to 
be,  when  Popes  were  supreme. 

Tlicy  denuind  that  the  U .  S.  mails  be  closed 


to  all  sucJi  Protestant  literature  as  dares  to  tell 
the  truth  on  Rome's  infernal   foreign  system. 

Popery  never  was  accepted  by  any  nation. 
It  has  always  been  an  organization  of  brute 
force. 

Christianity  had  won  Italy,  long  before  the 
sons  of  Constantine,  and  Theodosius  forced 
Popery  upon  the  churches. 

Charlemagne  forced  popery  upon  the  Sax- 
ons, just  as  Henry  II.  of  England  forced  it 
upon  the  independent  Christians  in  Ireland. 

Without  exception,  every  nation  that  yielded 
to  the  yoke  of  Rome,  was  made  to  do  it,  by 
the  ruthless  employment  of  military  force. 

In  England.  France,  Belgium.  Spain,  Por- 
tugal, Mexico,  Central  America,  South  Ameri- 
ca, Germany,  Austria,  Bohemia  and  Italy,  the 
story  has  ever  been  the  same. 

No  nation  voluntarily  accepted  Popery ;  and 
wherever  the  Papacy  has  conquered,  it  was  a 
tale  of  blood,  of  carnage,  of  pitiless  crime. 

The  very  laiv  of  popery  makes  it  a  criminal, 
against  God  and  man. 

The  very  law  of  the  Roman  church  makes 
it  a  church  of  persecution,  of  oppression,  of 
MURDER! 

Its  very  law  is  against  Light,  Progress, 
mental  integrity,  and  independent  Thought. 

Its  very  purpose  is  to  enslave,  to  domi- 
nate,  to   pillage,   to   debase,   to   rule   the   very 

10 


minds  of  men,  women  and  children,  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave;  and  to  dupe,  mistreat, 
and  plunder  them,  at  every  stage  of  the  jour- 
ney. 

It  is  a  marvelous  circumstance,  that  edi- 
tors and  preachers  will  take  the  irresponsible 
word  of  American  priests,  when  everybody 
can  read  the  law  itself,  as  laid  down  by  the 
Popes,  and  codified  by  Vatican  officials. 

Tliat  foreign  code  is  horrible,  and  it  means 
war  li'ifh  ours. 

Gladstone  warned  England ;  and  now  Eng- 
land sees  how  popish  treason  hampers  her  in 
Canada  and  Ireland. 

Gaml)etta  warned  France ;  and  France  heed- 
ed the  warning,  thereby  securing  a  unity  which 
England  lacks  in  the  crisis  of  her  fate. 

Bismarck  warned  the  Germans,  and  he  drove 
the  Jesuits  out;  but  William  II.  let  them  re- 
turn, and  they  have  been  conspiring  for  a 
general  war,  ever  since. 

Is  there  no  need  of  a  warning  to  our  people  ? 

In  the  New  York  Convention,  these  Jesuits 
actually  declared,  that  our  Government  should 
use  its  influence  to  hav^  the  Pope  created  arbi- 
ter of  tlic  Peace  Conference  ivhen  the  ivar  is 
over. 

Why  not  have  the  Methodist  church  repre- 
sented ? 

Why  not  demand  that  the  Baptists  have  a 
representative  ? 

W'hy  not  place  in  the  Peace  Conference  for 
the  Arch-bishop  of   Canterbury. 

11 


The  Turks  saved  Austria  and  Germany : 
why  not  demand  representation  for  the  Sheik 
ul  Islam  ? 

Mahomet  was  much  nearer  Christianity 
than  most  of  the  Popes  have  been. 

The  present  pope  is  a  Jesuit,  and  no 
Christian  could  possibly  subscribe  to  the  Jes- 
uit  oatJi. 

The  Jesuits  had  a  famous  law  case  in  France, 
growing  out  of  Jesuit  mercantile  transactions 
on  the  Island  of  Martinque,  West  Indies. 

These  Jesuits  were  so  powerful,  that  they 
believed  themselves  above  the  law,  and  they 
l)ecame  piratical  with  their  ships.  Their  re- 
fusal to  pay  an  honest  debt  to  the  Lioncy 
Brothers  and  Gouffre  forced  the  Marseilles 
merchants  into  bankruptcy ;  but  litigation  en- 
sued, and  the  High  Court  at  Paris  forced  the 
Jesuit  Society  to  produce  secret  books. 

"Father"  Lavalette  was  the  name  of  the 
defendant,  and  the  consecjuence  of  his  exposure 
was  that  this  criminal  secret  socictv  was  ex- 
pelled. 

The  bloody  clause  in  its  oath  is  that  which 
swears  them  to  extirpate  heretics  and  here- 
sies. 

The  oath  also  contains  the  orthodox  Catho- 
lic dogma,  that  the  Pope  has  the  power  to 
depose  non-catholic  rulers,  and  to  destroy  non- 
Catholic  governments. 

According  to  the  affidavit  of  the  Rev.  P. 
A.    Seguin.    and    the    editorial    sta!tement    of 

12 


liishop  Manuel  Ferrando,  the  oath  of  the  priest 
is  fully  as  treasonous  and  miu'derous  as  that 
of  the  Jesuits. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  4th 
Degree  Knights  of  Columbus  and  the  Ancient 
Order  of  Hibernians  take  a  similar  oath. 

In  Ireland,  it  has  been  proved  in  Court  on 
the  Hibernians,  time  and  again;  and  Father 
McDermott  accuses  them  of  the  Molly 
]\IcGuire  murders  in  Pennsylvania. 

Now  reflect  what  all  this  tends  to,  inevita- 
bly: 

Three  Irish  cardinals  sworn  to  persecute 
their  fellow  citizens  ; 

Bishops  and  Arch-bishops  sworn  to  the 
same  thing; 

'  Twenty  thousand  priests  sworn  to  perse- 
cute ;^  and  Jesuits  flocking  here  from  all  parts 
of  the  world,  sworn  to  extirpate  non-Catho- 
lics. 

Are  the  oaths  meaningless  ? 

If  so,  why  do  they  sign  them? 

Those  oaths  led  to  civil  war  in  Ireland, 
England,  and  Scotland. 

Those  oaths  drenched  Italy  in  blood,  blasted 
Protestantism  in  Bohemia,  and  cursed  Ger- 
man}- with  a  Thirty  Years'  War. 

Those  oaths  brought  a  French  army  upon 
IMexico  in  1864,  and  caused  the  Armageddon 
now  raging. 

The  Pope  is  a  Jesuit — and  the  private  secre- 
tary of  President  Wilson  is  not  only  a  lay- 
Jesuit,  but  a  4th  Degree  Knight  of  Columbus. 

13 


The— three  Irish  cardinals  are  Jesuits,  sworn 
to  persecute  Olid  TO  EXTIRPATE,  if  they 
took  the  usual  Jesuit  oath. 

Fourth  Degree  Knights  of  Columbus  hold 
the  most  powerful  governmental  appointments. 

Systematically,  they  are  driving  non-Catho- 
lics out  of  the  pul)lic  service. 

The  head  of  the  Army  on  the  Mexican 
border  is  O'Ryan,  an  Irish  Catholic,  and  I  pre- 
sume a  4th  Degree  Knight  of  Columbus. 

Knights  of  Columbus  in  Congress  are  striv- 
ing to  close  the  mails  to  anti-Catholic  literature. 

In  the  New  York  Convention,  orders  were 
issued  for  all  Catholic  young  men  to  form  rifle 
clubs,  of  their  own. 

None  l)ut  Catholics  can  join  these  rifle  clubs ; 
and  as  the  K.  of  C.  and  the  German  Central 
Verein  are  already  armed  and  drilled,  the  Pope 
will  have  three  standing  armies  in  this  Repub- 
lic read}^  to  obey  the  three  Irish  cardinals  who 
are  the  sworn  enemies  of  their  non-Catholic 
fellow  citizens,  and  the  sworn  subjects  of  a 
foreign  chureli  7vhose  Imv  calls  for  heretic 
BLOOD. 

Separate  Popish  colonies  aloof  from  Ameri- 
cans :  separate  schools  where  un-American 
principles  are  taught:  separate  secret  societies 
which  lione  but  Catholics  can  join:  separate 
rifle  clubs  whose  guns  are  for  Catholics  only : 
a  separate  code  of  laws,  irreconcileable  to  ours : 
to  what  does  all  this  tend,  if  not  to  Civil  War? 

14 


The  En_i;lish  historian,  Fronde,  says,  in  his 
"Short   StncHes  of   (ireat  Snhjects": 

In  countries  governed  by  authority,  intelligence 
rules.  In  free  countries,  numbers  rule.  The 
supremacy  of  the  Church  is  incompatible  with  any 
kind  of  liberty — liberty  of  conscience  or  of  reason, 
lilicrty  for  man  to  expand  in  any  direction  save 
\vli;it  tlie  church  marks  out  for  him. 

OI)viously  and  confessedly,  it  is  enemy  of  every- 
thing which  we  now  call  civilization  and  improve- 
ment. Yet  it  is  an  enemy  against  which  self- 
governed  peoples,  who  are  most  proud  of  their 
supposed  advancement,  contend  at  greatest  disad- 
vantages. Power  follows  the  majority  of  votes. 
The  Church  marshals  its  forces  in  an  unbroken 
phalanx.  The  theory  of  a  free  government  sup- 
poses every  citizen  to  be  influenced  by  patriotism, 
to  exert  his  own  intelligence,  to  take  a  personal 
and  individual  share  in  the  business  of  the  State. 
The  Roman  Catholics  have  no  country  but  their 
church.  They  are  allowed  no  independence.  They 
are  private  soldiers  in  an  army  whicli  is  command- 
ed by  the  priests,  and  united  and  organized  action 
is  as  superior  at  the  polling-booth  as  an  army  is 
superior  to  a  mob  in  the  field.  They  claim  their 
right  to  the  free  assertion  of  their  opinions  in  the 
name  of  republican  principles,  and  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied them.  But  no  such  republican  liberty  is 
permitted  within  their  own  lines.  They  obey  their 
commanders,  and  their  commanders  care  nothing- 
for  tile  nation  in  the  management  of  which  they 
arc  challenging  a  share.  They  are  members  of  a 
spiritual  empire  which  aims  only  at  submitting 
all  other  powers  under  the  feet.  They  are  Catho- 
lics first,  and  Americans  or  English  afterwards. 
Yet  as  English  or  American  citizens,  they  possess 
the  privileges  of  freemen,  and  the  wire-pullers 
at  ]iolitical  elections,  whose  horizon  is  bounded 
I)y  the  result  of  some  immediate  struggle,  know 
too  well  the  value  of  such  allies  to  be  unwilling 
to  liid  high  for  their  support.  Thus  it  is  that  in 
the  English  Parliament,  though  England  does  not 
herself  return  a  single  Catholic  representative, 
the    Catholics,    through    the    Irish    members,    often 

15 


hold  the  balance  of  power,  and  governments  exist 
but  by  their  sufiferance. 

(Short  Studies,  Etc.  page  106.) 

Rome's  criminal  secret  societies. 

What  will  he  the  natural  fruits  of  those 
Romanist  secret  societies,  anned,  drilled,  and 
sworn  to  murder  ? 

If  the  oaths  mean  nothing,  why  are  they 
prescribed,  and  why  do  Catholics  swear  to 
obey  them? 

In  the  l)ook  whose  title  is  "Pope,  or  Presi- 
dent" I  find  the  following,  which  is  in  sub- 
stance the  same  as  the  oath  of  the  Jusuits.  the 
Sinn  Fein,  the  Ancient  Order  Hibernians,  the 
4th  Degree  Knights  of  Columbus,  and  the 
Clan-na-Gael :  the  oath  given  below  being 
that  of  the  Italian  papal  secret  order,  called  the 
San  Fidesti,  organized  under  Pope  Pius  IX : 

"I,  N.  N.,  in  presence  of  Almighty  God,  the 
Fatlier,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  of  the  ever  im- 
maculate Virgin  Mary,  and  of  all  the  celestial 
court,  etc.;  of  3'ou,  honored  father,  swear,'  that 
I  will  sooner  cut  off  my  right  hand,  and  die  of 
hunger,  or  under  the  greatest  torments;  and  I 
pray  the  Lord  God  Almighty  to  condemn  me  to 
the  endless  pains  of  hell,  than  to  betraj'  or  deceive 
one  of  the  honored  fathers  and  brethren  of  the 
Catholic  Apostolical  Society  to  which  I  subscribed 
at  this  time,  or  if  I  do  not  scrupulously  fulfill  its 
laws,  or  give  assistance  to  my  brethren  in  want. 
I  swear  to  defend  myself  in  the  cause  which  I 
have  embraced,  never  to  spare  a  single  individual 
belonging  to  the  infamous  combination  of  tlie 
Lilicrals,  whatever  may  be  his  birth,  parentage, 
or  fortune,  and  to  have  no  pity  for  the  cries  of 
children,  nor  of  old  men  or  women,  and  to  shed 
the  blood  of  the  infamous  Liberals,  even  to  the 
last  drop,  without  regard  to  age,  sex,  or  rank. 
Finally,  I  swear  implacable  hatred  to  all  the  ene- 
mies of  our  Holy  Roman  Catholic  religion,  one 
and  true." 


